The type of capability Presto provides — fast, interactive SQL queries on Hadoop — has been all the rage over the past year. It has become so popular because people got tired of having to move data to and from Hadoop to query it using analytic SQL databases, and they didn’t want to wait for the MapReduce-based Hive to return results when timeliness is an issue.

I wrote at the time Facebook open sourced Presto that it could potentially have a material impact on the commercial the SQL-on-Hadoop market because it’s both available and has already been proven at scale. Qubole offering Presto as a service only underscores that opinion, although is hardly definitive proof given its startup stature and relatively small (but growing) user base.